Electric lamps or light bulbs are typically equipped with either threaded Edison sockets or bayonet sockets, both of which present a risk of electrical shock. Contact-hazardous Edison screw sockets and bayonet sockets are accepted worldwide only because hitherto there was not available on the market any completely contact-safe base-and-socket systems which met all international requirements. However, the advent of German patent application 197 06 905.3, (whose U.S. counterpart is U.S. Pat. No. 6,033,249) which describes a faultless construction, has engendered renewed interest in averting this ever present danger.
Any new socket system should be simple, convenient and user-friendly. While lamps equipped with pin-type connectors have been proposed, such lamps present a problem of aligning the pins to the correct plug-in position in a pin socket.
Also the erroneous use of unsuitable lamps for a certain lighting fixture should be avoided. For this, coding measurements should be developed to prevent the use of an incorrect lamp (e.g., a bulb having an improper rating).
The problem of the invention is to fulfill both wishes by a single constructive recommendation.